Newly released public records suggest a prominent Northwest activist was targeted for deportation partly because she spoke out to the media. Lawyers say the documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raise concerns about free speech.

Morning traffic streamed past a busy intersection in South Seattle, past a family-style pizza shop and a brightly-painted Mexican restaurant that still wouldn't open for several hours. A few residents came and went from the low-rise apartments lining the blocks in this largely Latino neighborhood.

Court hearings at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma are typically a quiet affair. But this week, a busload of students and faculty from the University of Washington showed up to call for the release of a fellow student who’s facing deportation.

About a dozen counties in Washington state are singled out in a new report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It’s the first of an ongoing weekly report that spotlights local jails considered “uncooperative” on federal immigration enforcement.

A federal judge said he’ll make a decision early next week about whether to release Ramirez from a Tacoma lockup, where he has been held since Feb. 10. Ramirez is asking the court to find that his arrest violated his constitutional rights.

Bill Radke talks with KUOW immigration reporter Liz Jones about the arrest and detention of Daniel Ramirez Medina, who's been held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma since Friday. Ramirez has temporary legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. His attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit seeking his immediate release.

An immigrant in Seattle with temporary legal status through the DACA or “dreamer” program is currently being held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. It’s believed to be the first immigration arrest of its kind under the Trump administration.

When he was in prison, Lorenzo Palma strongly suspected he was an American citizen. He had spent his whole life in the United States, and he knew his grandfather was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1914.

Palma had served five years for an assault conviction and was about to be released on parole, but immigration officials had stopped his release because they wanted to deport him. They said he wasn't a U.S. citizen.

Sara, 20, is a Mexican student in Des Moines, Washington, a half hour south of Seattle. She wears her hair in two braids, tucked under her black knit hat. White ear buds hang from her collar. She’s friendly, but far from talkative.

We meet in a small meeting room at Highline Community College, where she is taking a GED-prep class. She looks out the window as she recalls her first days in the U.S., at an immigration holding shelter in California.

A federal judge in Seattle heard arguments Friday in a potentially far-reaching immigration case. At issue is whether children who face deportation alone are entitled to an attorney, at the government’s expense. KUOW’s Liz Jones reports.

TRANSCRIPT:

There’s a rising trend of children coming alone to the U.S., unlawfully crossing the southern border. Most are from Mexico and Central America. They’re often called ‘unaccompanied minors’.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson formally weighed in Monday on a federal lawsuit related to immigration. The suit challenges President Obama’s plan to offer legal protections to millions of undocumented immigrants.

Deportations of undocumented immigrants declined across the country this year. But in the Pacific Northwest, the numbers took a nosedive. New data show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported only about half as many people as last year from Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

In fiscal year 2014, ICE deported 2,341 people from the Northwest compared to 4,525 the year before. That's a drop of 48 percent.